Granma revisits fragments of speeches by the leader at the head of the Cuban Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, delivered on the date of 24th February at various transcendent moments for the nation.

IMMENSE REVOLUTIONARY AND HUMAN SATISFACTION

In his historic report to the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, comrade Fidel, who at this moment heads the delegation of our Party invited to participate in the XXV Congress of the glorious Communist Party of Lenin’s homeland, referring to the Draft Constitution that would be submitted for consideration at the highest event of Cuban communists, expressed:

«Enriched by popular discussion and perfected by the Central Preparatory Commission we have obtained the text on which our Congress will pronounce, and which will be submitted to a referendum next 15th February, so that it is our people with their free, equal, universal and secret vote who definitively sanction the Constitution that will be solemnly proclaimed on the 24th of February on the patriotic date that marks the eighty-first anniversary of the start of the glorious independence war of 1895, fruit of the moving effort of José Martí and his glorious Cuban Revolutionary Party.

«What immense revolutionary and human satisfaction to bring into force on that day the Constitution which, as a synthesis of the historic struggles of our people, enshrines the desire of our National Hero that the first law of our republic be the worship by Cubans of the full dignity of man.»

And today, 24th February 1976 – a date that from this moment will be doubly historic – when we meet to proclaim and officially bring into force the first socialist Constitution of the Americas, approved by the free, equal, universal, secret and conscious vote of 95.7% of all the men and women of our people from the age of sixteen, we feel profoundly overcome by that immense revolutionary and human satisfaction that Fidel foresaw.

(Speech at the proclamation of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba. Karl Marx Theatre, Havana, 24th February 1976)

FIDEL IS FIDEL

(…) I assume the responsibility entrusted to me with the conviction that, as I have stated many times, the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution is one alone.

Fidel is Fidel, we all know it well. Fidel is irreplaceable and the people will continue his work when he is no longer physically present. Although his ideas will always remain, which have made it possible to raise the bastion of dignity and justice that our country represents.

Only the Communist Party, a sure guarantee of the unity of the Cuban nation, can be a worthy heir to the trust placed by the people in its leader. It is the superior guiding force of society and the state, and so it is established in Article 5 of our Constitution, approved in a referendum by exactly 97.7% of voters.

That conviction will be of particular importance when, by the natural law of life, the founding and forging generation of the Revolution has passed.

(…)

Our history teaches, from the wars of independence to the present, that the greater the difficulties, the more demands, discipline and unity are required. Disorder, impunity and lack of cohesion have always been among the worst enemies of a people that fights.

(…)

Comrades, on a day like today, in 1895, at Martí’s call, the old and new pines resumed the struggle for independence, frustrated by the military intervention of the United States. Half a century later we managed to unite again and do battle with the same enemy as always.

It was no coincidence that this date was chosen fifty years ago for the first broadcast of Radio Rebelde in the Sierra Maestra, nor that it was the day we proclaimed our socialist Constitution in 1976.

On this 113th anniversary of the start of the necessary war, the challenges are truly many and difficult. Faced with them, let us bear in mind what Fidel expressed in his reflection published last 10th December, when he alerted us: «The stern face of Martí and the fulminating gaze of Maceo point out to every Cuban the hard path of duty and not which side offers a better life.»

(Speech at the constitutive session of the VII Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power. Convention Palace, Havana, 24th February 2008)

TO DEFEND, MAINTAIN AND CONTINUE PERFECTING SOCIALISM

On a date like today, 24th February 1895, the struggle for independence was resumed with the fusion of the battle-hardened mambises of the first war and the new pines, under the leadership of the Cuban Revolutionary Party and Martí.

It falls to me to assume again before you and all our people the honour of presiding over the Council of State and the Government.

In this regard, I believe it is not idle to reiterate what was stated twice in this Parliament: I was not elected president to restore capitalism in Cuba, nor to surrender the Revolution. I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not to destroy it.

(…)

When speaking of these topics it is opportune to recall what Fidel expressed, exactly fifteen years ago, before the National Assembly, on 24th February 1998, regarding the first rule or trait that should characterise a revolutionary cadre: «Never to aspire to positions, that men reach the positions that correspond to them by their merits, by their work, by their virtues, by their patriotism.»

(Speech at the constitutive session of the VIII Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, Convention Palace, Havana, 24th February 2013)

THE CAPACITY TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE AND OVERCOME ANY SETBACK

Today, 24th February, we commemorate the 123rd anniversary of the resumption of the War of Independence called for by José Martí.

The profound significance of this date marked the point of maturity and crystallisation of the project elaborated by Martí, who to lead it and make it a reality founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

When everything seemed lost, his capacity to find an alternative and overcome any setback led him to call the people to a definitive effort: the war he believed necessary when he considered it inevitable. At all times he appealed to national unity, articulating the best traditions of the past, omitting none of those who were willing to sacrifice and give their lives for the superior cause.

A month later, on 25th March 1895, in Montecristi, Dominican Republic, Martí signed with Major General Máximo Gómez the manifesto that established the scope and purposes of the struggle. Together they set out for Cuba to join the libertarian endeavour, landing at Playitas de Cajobabo on 11th April. A few days earlier, Major General Antonio Maceo had done so at Duaba.

As Fidel pointed out when commemorating a century of the Ten Years’ War: «Martí gathered the banners of Céspedes, of Agramonte and of the heroes who fell in that struggle and took the revolutionary ideas of Cuba in that period to their highest expression.»

(…)

On a day like this, on which we honour those worthy Cubans who in 1895 returned to the battlefield to liberate Cuba, I take up the words spoken by Fidel in 1965: «We then would have been like them, they today would have been like us!» That is the commitment we have maintained and it will also be the one that guides current and future generations, so that the homeland may continue to be free.

(Speech at the awarding of the honorary title Hero of Labour of the Republic of Cuba to three valuable comrades. Havana Capitol, 24th February 2018)